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“Who knew that I’d still be cramming for exams at this age?”
As the host of CBC Radio’s award-winning Writers & Company, Eleanor Wachtel is known for her keen interview style and cool, composed personality; characteristics that she has put to good use over the years in conversation with the likes of Saul Bellow, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje and Mordecai Richler.
Yet even long-time fans of the 30-year veteran broadcaster might be surprised at how much sweat goes into that relaxed on-air presence.
A devotee of ‘immersion research,’ Wachtel boasts a work ethic that would make most contemporary arts journalists blanch. Prior to every weekly episode, Wachtel learns everything she can about an author’s life and work (often reading numerous books), charts the intersection between the two, and then distills it all into a delectable one-hour interview.
“Who knew that I’d still be cramming for exams at this age?” jokes Wachtel, who is in her 60s.
It’s a studious approach that has worked well ever since she launched Writers & Company in 1990.
In the two decades since, she has held court with authors—famous and up-and-coming—from all over the world, and has managed to make each interview intimate and erudite. In an era of arts journalism that increasingly rewards personality over professionalism, hers is a rare combination—one that has earned her multiple awards, a loyal fan base, six honorary degrees and entry in the Order of Canada.
Author Kazuo Ishiguro, who wrote Remains of the Day, once called her “one of the very finest interviewers of authors I’ve come across, anywhere in the world.”
According to Wachtel, she’s always been something of a perpetual student. Born in Montreal, she remembers early on emulating her older brother and sister who would spend endless Saturday mornings reading books in bed. (Though, she’s quick to point out that she also enjoyed television and comics as a kid.)
Eleanor Wachtel is also a well-regarded author in addition to her weekly duties on CBC Radio’s Writers & Company. Since 1993, she has edited and curated three collections of interviews from the award-winning show (Writers & Company, More Writers & Company and Original Minds).
In 2000 she was part of Lost Classics, a collection co-edited by Michael Ondaatje which featured personal stories about out-of-print or overlooked books.
She also contributed to the best-selling book, Dropped Threads: What We Aren't Told (2001) co-edited by Carol Shields, which explored the lives of women in 34 different stories.
In 2007, Wachtel published Random Illuminations: Conversations With Carol Shields, a collection of conversations, correspondence and personal; recollections with the Canadian writer and friend who died in 2003.
Later, at McGill University Wachtel worked for the student newspaper and served on the executive of the Undergraduate Literary Society, before graduating with an English degree.
Unsure of what career path to follow, she enrolled (“partly by default” she says) in a master’s program in journalism at Syracuse University. After graduating, she accompanied her then-husband (and anthropologist) to Kenya.
“It was a terrific experience,” she says. “We got to know so many different people and the country itself.”
Indulging her inner student once again, Wachtel began research on Kenyan women. “I became a freelance sociologist of sorts,” she says—which helps to explain her affection for literature that boasts a strong sense of place.
“I am drawn to fiction as [a form of] painless ethnography,” she says with a laugh.
A later move to Vancouver saw her stretch out in different directions, from editing a literary quarterly magazine, to freelance writing and teaching in the Women’s Studies department at Simon Fraser University.
But it was in 1979 that she finally found the perfect fit for her interests and talents. That’s when she began working as a theatre and film critic for CBC Radio, a job she did for eight years until the freelance scene in Vancouver began to fade. So, in 1987 she accepted a one-year contract in Toronto as a commentator on a CBC Radio program called State of the Arts.
She later moved on to a writer/broadcaster role for The Arts Tonight and as an arts reporter for The Arts Report before the debut of Writers & Company in October 1990.
Watchel was quick to put her own distinctive stamp on the show, choosing to focus on only one writer per hour-long episode—rather than the traditional approach of most book shows which feature segments on a number different books and authors.
Having experimented with the format already, she realized that the approach would require a tremendous effort, but knew it would be worth it.
“Shows that provided the greatest satisfaction for the listener feature a single author.”
To prepare for the challenge, Wachtel worked closely with a producer, the two reading a subject’s most recent book and one or two others if possible. In the years since the Writers & Company team has expanded, with others now committed to gathering published material about the author, from personality profiles to book reviews.
“It’s a quick immersion in a person’s life and work—and then it’s like cramming for a final exam.”
Each “exam,” or interview, is structured in such a way to attempt “to draw out the author.” She believes she is successful in large part because she has actually bothered to read her subjects’ work; something the author’s are very appreciative of (and something that is not the modus operandi of all interviewers).
“They become more open and more relaxed,” she says.
Once a rapport has been established, Wachtel asks thoughtful questions that evoke equally thoughtful responses. The end result is an engaging interaction between her and the author that is capable of mesmerizing the listener, whether they are familiar with the writers’ work or not.
In recent years, she’s employed this same approach to other cultures, travelling to Central Europe, South Africa, India, New Zealand, Argentina, the Middle East and most recently Australia, to interview authors in their native environment.
The results of her diligent approach to research has not gone unrecognized, especially by her fellow journalists. In 1995 and 2003, Writers & Company won the CBC Award for Programming Excellence, for Best National Weekly Show. In granting the honour, the judges paid Wachtel a compliment that speaks to her ability to engage and educate: If they could take only one radio program to a desert island they said it would be Writers & Company.